1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing apparatuses, information processing methods, and programs that are suitable for performing comparison of objects between a plurality of image data items.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, digital cameras have been widely used. Under such circumstances, not only professional photographers but also many general users edit photographs by using personal computers (PCs). In the case of editing, printing, and recording of image data, users have performed operations, such as comparison of image data items and selection of the best photograph, by using a list of images or the like.
In such operations, it is necessary for users to adjust display magnifications and display positions of image data items so that the users can easily select an image data item containing an object to be edited from among a plurality of image data items and compare the plurality of image data items. Thus, users must perform cumbersome processing.
An image processing apparatus designed to solve the above-described problem is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-215041. The image processing apparatus displays a plurality of images on a screen and then adjusts display sizes of the images such that the displayed images fit within the screen. After that, in response to an instruction from a user, the image processing apparatus adjusts the size of only a single image or causes the sizes of multiple images to be adjusted in conjunction with adjustment of the size of a single image. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-215041 describes that enlarging or contracting processing is performed in accordance with the number of pixels of image data or the zooming magnification for photographing. An example in which, as a result of such processing, the sizes of main objects in two images are finally made the same as each other is also provided in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-215041.
However, the example described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-215041 is merely a specialized example for the case that an image data item containing a main object has a specific configuration, and desired results may not always be obtained in the case of using other various image data items. For example, in a case where two image data items containing main objects that are disposed in substantially corresponding positions are used, the image processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-215041 can be used. However, in a case where the main objects are disposed in different positions, using such an image processing apparatus does not yield a desired result. That is, image data items that can be processed using the image processing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-215041 are significantly restricted.